Never Too Far

by Christopher, Thomas

  Without a second thought, he bolted out from under the truck, staying crouched as he sprinted furiously to the Arbyter and dove underneath. He raked his chest on the rough ground, tearing a button off his shirt, before he came to a halt and shimmied forward so his legs weren’t jutting out. He waited again. When nothing happened, he knew he must’ve made it without being detected. He crawled on his elbows, swishing his hips to propel himself, until he reached the other end of the Arbyter. As far as he could see, there wasn’t another vehicle in front of him. The street looked clear ahead, dark but clear. This time he really had to make a run for it.

  He flew out into the open, rising up to his full height. His legs were pumping so hard he thought they would come unhinged. He waited for the shouts of policemen and the blast of guns. His insides clenched-up like a knot, while his body felt like it was shaking and trembling. Then he stumbled. He skidded on his knees and his body whipped forward. He would’ve smacked his face against the ground if he hadn’t stuck his elbow out. It cracked against a sharp stone, ramming his shoulder up into his jaw. It felt like his arm had been wrenched loose.

  He twirled around and looked behind him. The Arbyter was cloaked in a shadow. His gut unclenched and now it felt like spilled liquid. Behind the Arbyter was the truck, then a splash of light against the walls of the buildings. He’d made it. High in the air, a faint beacon of light swished across the black sky. It must be a searchlight from a boat on the river, which meant the river was in that direction. That’s all he needed to know.

  He got up again and ran. He rounded the corner and made his way down the street, and after he turned so he was headed in the direction of the river, he finally slowed his pace. His blood felt like it was speeding around inside his body. He cradled his arm and walked a while in the dark until he came to the crumbled remains of a building where it wasn’t as dark. Some of the light from the Green Zone had found its way there and settled on the ruins. He stopped to inspect the damage to his arm. It didn’t look broken, but there was a gash on his elbow where his shirt was torn. Blood dripped. He tested his shoulder, shrugged it, rotated it, and was satisfied that it was okay. After rummaging in some nearby garbage, he found a soiled rag. He tied it around his bleeding elbow. He didn’t know what time it was, but he knew it had to be very late. Then he remembered the food he’d bought and felt his back pockets in the miraculous hope that the sausages and bread where still there. Of course, they weren’t.

  Later, he found some more garbage in the back of a tavern with darkened windows. He scrounged around in the trashcans and bags until he found some bones with meat still on them. He also found some shriveled up carrots. He bit a hunk off one and chewed. It would do. He stuffed the food scraps in his pockets and continued on.

  Chapter 36

  Dawn arrived by the time he got to the rooming house. The darkness thinned as the sun burned through the fog that rolled off of Lake Mashenomak. Joe was exhausted. His legs felt as if they were wading through sludge. He was worried sick that something terrible had happened to Mary. He only wanted to find her safe, and then to rest. He wanted to lie on the bed next to her, close his eyes, and sleep for a long, long time.

  When he stepped inside their room, he didn’t see her anywhere. She wasn’t on the bed or sitting in the chair by the window or standing in front of the fuzzy TV screen. He didn’t panic, at least not right away, because he noticed the bathroom door was closed. He thought maybe she was soaking in the bathtub, and she hadn’t heard him come in. Joe knocked on the door. He said her name. When no answer came, he turned the knob, pushed the door open, and found the bathroom empty.

  “Mary!” he shouted. He ran out into the hallway. “Mary!” he shouted again.

  Someone yelled back at him to shut up. Then down at the far end of the hallway, Eve appeared in a violet-colored robe. She motioned with her hand for him to come.

  “She’s okay,” Eve said. “She’s in here.”

  Joe ran down the hall, brushed past Eve, and darted into the room. Mary sat huddled in a plush red chair. Her head was lowered so that it looked like there was only a hat sitting atop her shoulders. Her thin arms crisscrossed her protruding belly as if she was holding it in place. There was the sound of soft scratchy music and the scent of tobacco smoke and lavender lingering in the air.

  When Mary lifted her head and saw Joe, she leapt out of the chair and ran to him. She threw her arms around his neck, buried her head against his chest, and clung to him. He felt her belly press against him and her slender body trembling in his arms.

  “She was scared out of her mind,” Eve said. “She was screaming. They were going to throw her out, but I told them I’d keep her quiet in my room until you got back. If you got back.”

  “Of course I was coming back,” Joe said. “I wouldn’t leave her.”

  Mary finally let go and stepped back.

  “What happened to you?” Eve said to Joe. “You look like a wreck.”

  The knees in his pants were torn, a button was missing on his grimy shirt, a blood stained rag was tied around his elbow, and his face was smudged with dirt.

  “I went out to look for food, but the police picked me up, and somehow I managed to get away.”

  “Lucky,” Eve said.

  “I got something to eat, though.”

  He dug in his pockets and pulled out the half-eaten bones and the limp carrots.

  “You can’t eat those,” Eve said. “They’re rotten. I’ve got food here. You can have some. The girl already had some bread and jam.”

  “Jam?” Joe said.

  “You can have some too. I’ll make some for you. Go in the bathroom and get cleaned up. I have some clothes you can wear.”

  Joe looked at Mary. He still felt warm and good at finding her safe, but now he wondered if her health was better.

  “Is she still sick?” he asked Eve.

  “That girl is skin and bones. And she could go into labor at any second. It’s a wonder she’s in as good a shape as she is. I gave her a little medicine to help. Now go clean up.”

  In the bathroom, Joe was surprised at how friendly—even motherly—Eve was being, especially after how cold and suspicious she’d been toward him before. He was also glad she’d rescued Mary. She didn’t have to do that. After all, they meant nothing to her. For all she knew she could be getting into a host of problems by helping them out.

  Joe untied the soiled rag around his elbow. When he pulled it away, the dried blood peeled off with the rag. It stung like being cut all over again. Some blood dribbled down his arm. He stripped off his clothes. He saw the scabbed-over scratches on his legs from when they were attacked in the forest. It seemed ages ago when that happened. Once he filled the sink with water, he took a washcloth off a rod and picked up a bar of soap in a dish and washed himself all over. The water in the basin turned blackish-gray with dirt. He ran the soap over the cut on his elbow.

  Then the door opened and Joe grabbed a towel to cover himself.

  “Here’s the clothes,” Eve said. She must’ve caught his startled look because she added, “You don’t have anything I haven’t seen before.” But she didn’t leave after that. “Let me take care of that cut,” she said.

  “That’s okay,” Joe said. He tied the towel around his waist.

  “No, it’s not okay. It’ll get infected if not done right.”

  There wasn’t much Joe could say. She seemed dead-set on helping him. After she opened a cabinet, she pulled out a small bottle and unscrewed the cap. She wrapped her fingers around his skinny forearm and turned it to see his elbow. He must’ve flinched a little because Eve said, “Hold still. I’m not going to hurt you.”

  She poured a few drops from the bottle onto his cut, which burned and made him suck his teeth before the burn went away. Then Eve dabbed it with a cloth. Joe watched her attentively. He noticed the faint lines fanning out from the corners of her eyes and the little creases like water ripples at the sides of her mouth. She looked older now that he saw her u
p close. He smelled the cigarette smoke on her breath, peppery and sweet at the same time, and he smelled the lavender coming from her hair.

  “Why are you being so nice to us?”

  “A person needs a reason to be nice?”

  “No, I was just wondering because of the way you acted before.”

  “That’s just a front I put on to protect myself.”

  “So you’re not really like that?”

  “Cynical, you mean?”

  He didn’t know if that’s what he meant or not. He didn’t know what “cynical” was.

  “I’ve always been a bit leery,” she continued. “It’s my personality. I’m sure they weren’t expecting that little glitch when they designed me. I’m not artificial or synthetic or anything like that.” She paused for a second. “Do you have any idea what I’m talking about? Do you know what a GeM is?”

  Joe remembered Frank talking about people in the Green Zone who were “enhanced” and called themselves “transhuman.” Frank didn’t really understand it all. It was just stuff he heard about but never really witnessed. Joe didn’t know if that was what Eve was referring to or not. He didn’t want to appear dumb if he was wrong, so he didn’t say anything.

  “Let me put it this way,” she said. “I was created in a laboratory. Genetically modified, altered, mixed, whatever you want to call it. They used specific genes, so I’d be a certain way. It’s basically crossbreeding, the same thing you do with plants and animals but at a more sophisticated level. Anyway, my real name isn’t Eve. It’s GeM X7-391.”

  Joe was curious now. “But you’re still human, right?”

  She laughed. “Yes, I’m still human. Which is part of the problem. That’s why they fast-tracked the creation of Amalgams that are more programmable. Part computer, part human.”

  “But they look human?”

  “You wouldn’t know the difference.”

  “So what were you made for?”

  “To serve top officials in government and industry, in particular the head of the Ministry of Peace and Security.”

  Joe remembered that title. “Is he the same man I saw on TV?”

  “That’s him. Scaring everybody with the terrorist bogeyman.”

  “What happened?”

  “I didn’t like him. I couldn’t stand him really, and one day I said screw it. I refused to service him. So I was expelled. I was renamed, retagged, and dumped in the Fulfillment District with a suitcase and a hundred shekels. Luckily, part of my training included dance. And I’m good at it. That’s how I get by these days.”

  Eve finished cleaning the cut and grabbed a piece of gauze out of the cabinet. She pressed it on his elbow and tied a string around it to secure it.

  “That’s better,” she said.

  When she looked at Joe, he realized she’d caught him staring at her. He looked away, but not before he saw her grin. It wasn’t a full grin, though, or even particularly genuine; it seemed half-hearted at best.

  After Eve left the bathroom, he put on the white pullover shirt she’d given him. It didn’t have any buttons down the front. And then he slipped on the brown pants. The clothes were baggy, but they were better than his raggedy old ones. He felt sort of funny not wearing a green button-up shirt like he always wore. He grabbed his pocketknife, the empty coin purse, and the three bullets out of his old clothes and stuffed them in the pockets of his new pants.

  When he came out of the bathroom, he looked at Mary. As usual, she had her head down and he really couldn’t see her.

  Joe spread his arms out and said to her, “What do you think?” Mary didn’t answer. “You are going to spoil me with all your compliments.”

  Eve held a tray with slices of brown bread and a glass jar of red jam. She set the tray on a table in the corner where there were two chairs. Joe sat down across from Eve as she spread some jam on a piece of bread.

  Now that Joe felt more at ease, he realized that Eve’s room had electricity, and the scratchy music was coming from a big radio standing in the corner.

  “There’s a blackout,” Joe said. “How’re you getting power?”

  “I have a battery for emergencies,” she said. “It cost me a hell of a lot, too.”

  When she handed the slice of bread to him, she caught him staring again. One side of her mouth curled up into what he thought was going to be a smile, but it turned out to be only a half-smile, or perhaps it was another half-hearted attempt at a smile or not a smile at all. Maybe it was just another sign of her doubt that anything was truly what it appeared to be.

  “You hungry?” she said.

  “Starving,” Joe said.

  He took a big bite and never tasted anything so good. The bread was firm and the jam sweet. It tickled his tongue.

  “You like it?” she asked.

  “It’s delicious.”

  “Raspberry.”

  Eve glanced at Mary, who was sitting in the plush chair again.

  “She doesn’t talk,” Eve said.

  “She does once she gets to know you. But even then she doesn’t say a lot.”

  “What did you say her name was? Mary?”

  “That’s what I call her. I tried to get her name but she wouldn’t tell me, so I had to give her one.” Joe took another bite of bread and jam. “I don’t know what her real name is.”

  “You don’t know her real name, but she’s having your baby?”

  Joe realized how that sounded, especially in light of the story he’d told Eve when they first met. He chewed and swallowed.

  “She’s an orphan. She never had a name.”

  “Are you two married?”

  “Of course.”

  “No rings?”

  “I don’t have money for something like that.”

  He hoped his answers satisfied her, but when she looked at him, one eye narrowed while the other eye widened, as if she were peering through a keyhole to see if someone was really on the other side.

  “You should take her to a hospital,” Eve said.

  “I will, when she’s ready.”

  “I think she’s ready now. Isn’t that why you came here?”

  “Yes.”

  “Just take her, then. Take her to the public ward.”

  “Is she okay?”

  “She could go any day. Take her. There’s no point in waiting.”

  “I will,” Joe said.

  “I don’t believe you,” Eve said. “What are you hiding?”

  “Nothing,” Joe said.

  “Don’t give me that. You can’t lie well, so don’t even try.”

  “I’m not.”

  “You’re not? Then why are you staying at a place that’s not even close to the hospital? And why are you out driving in that piece of crap wagon all day and gone all night? That looks like somebody who’s not telling the truth, and who’s up to no good.”

  “I’m not up to anything.”

  “Who sent you?”

  “Sent me?”

  “I’m not buying your dirt-eater act one bit. Who are you working for? Is this a set-up?”

  “No. It’s nothing like that.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  “I am right,” Joe said. “I thought you were going to be nice to us.”

  “Being nice is a luxury.”

  “Do we really look like trouble to you?”

  “The devil always looks innocent. That’s why he’s the devil.”

  “I think we need to go now,” Joe said.

  Joe took three big bites and then crammed the rest of the bread and jam in his mouth so his cheeks bulged.

  “I’m only looking out for my interests,” she said.

  Joe’s mouth was too full to say anything. He got up to grab Mary, but Eve caught his arm.

  “Hold on,” she said. “I didn’t mean to upset you. I don’t know if you’re up to anything or not. It’s just in my nature to see the dark side in everything.”

  He swallowed the hunk of food in his mouth. “We should still g
o,” he said. “It’s been a long night.”

  The look in Eve’s eyes made Joe think she might be sincere, which surprised him. Eve let him loose and he went to Mary and leaned over her. He grasped her thin hand and helped her to her feet. When he turned around, he half expected Eve to say they didn’t have to leave, especially after what she just said. He might’ve reconsidered leaving, but in the end she didn’t say anything. In fact, she didn’t even look at them.

  On their way out, Joe said, “Thanks for helping us.”

  He meant it too.

  Chapter 37

  Back in their room, Joe tried the light switch but there was still no power. He forgot it was morning outside and all he needed to do was open the curtains. Instead, he found the candles in the cabinet and lit them with a box of matches from the drawer. He didn’t realize his mistake until after he stuffed the matches in his pocket and turned around. Mary had pulled open the curtains and now stood facing the bright sunlit window. For a moment a blur of yellow light outlined her body. After she moved away, Joe saw dark spots floating in front of his eyes.

  He didn’t know what to think about what just happened with Eve. Should he be nervous about her sudden suspicions or not? He tried to brush it off. He told himself that she’d fallen from her formerly high position and had no power to harm them now. Or did she? Maybe she still had connections. Maybe she was engaged in something illegal herself, and that’s why she got so suspicious.

  “We have to go and find Templeton right now,” he said to Mary, “and sell the diesel so we can get out of here.”

  He paused. Mary sat in the chair by the window. Her knees were apart to accommodate her belly and her hands were sunk in her dress between her little stick legs. She looked so vulnerable, so delicate. Even though he knew she was stronger than she looked, there was still a part of her that was a frightened girl inside. He realized he needed to calm down. More than likely he was overreacting and making Mary worry for no reason.

  “Maybe we should rest before we go,” he said.

  He smelled lavender again and he figured the scent must’ve followed them from Eve’s room. But when he stepped closer to Mary, he realized the smell was coming from her.